COLLEGE FOOTBALL: Rutgers' Nova uses mistakes to improve

Rutgers quarterback Gary Nova (15) throws a pass during during the second half of an NCAA college football game against Syracuse at High Points Solutions stadium in Piscataway, N.J., Saturday, Oct. 13, 2012. Rutgers won 23-15. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)

PISCATAWAY — After throwing a career-high six interceptions in Rutgers’ loss to Kent State, Gary Nova is using his two weeks between games to both learn and forget about it.

The sophomore quarterback left the loss, in which he threw one more pick than his entire tenure at Don Bosco Prep, the antithesis of the passer who threw only three picks all year.

But Nova guarantees all his mistakes make him stronger.

He is also confident that he can be the same quarterback who threw for career-high totals for yards, completions and touchdowns Sept. 22 against Arkansas, beginning with how he watched that game’s film.

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“When I have a good game, like at Arkansas, I don’t watch any of the plays that were good plays,” Nova said. “I watch the mistakes that I had because if you did it right, there’s no reason to watch it.”

Nova said he maintains a short memory with mistakes despite their consequences.

The Scarlet Knights still have most of their goals ahead of them besides a national title, including a Big East title and BCS bowl victory.

The loss led Nova to make a confession about Rutgers’ lost goal.

“(A loss) was going to happen,” Nova said. “I didn’t expect to go perfect. You just learn from it.”

His teammates are supporting him, too. Sophomore running back Jawan Jamison, who led the Knights with 88 receiving yards and eight catches against the Golden Flashes, learned about his own execution.

“We have a really good trust factor,” the 5-foot-8 Jamison said. “It’s just about him seeing me, where I’m at because out there, everybody’s taller than me. We’ve been working on it, we’ll get better.”

Nova learned from last season’s mistakes, which included forcing a big play too often.

That cost him nine interceptions in only 227 attempts a year ago, an aspect of which Nova had improved this year.

The Elmwood Park native, has equaled that total in 247 attempts this year, only slightly better than last year’s rate of error.

His performance against Kent State took him back to one of his biggest priorities in training camp.

“(I) just have to be more careful with the ball,” Nova said, “and a lot of interceptions I’m getting forced out of the pocket and trying to make a play where all throughout the season I’ve been throwing the ball away.”

Just as Nova maintains the same approach after arguably his worst-career performance, head coach Kyle Flood kept his philosophy.

“You have to examine (every game),” Flood said. “Examine the things that didn’t go right, why didn’t they go right? Examine the things that did go right. There were certainly things in that game that did go right for them. Why did they go right?”

Army has intercepted only six passes this year, but its versatile defense which Nova said involves unexpected coverage patterns could give him trouble Saturday.

And like Nova’s six-pick game, the unexpected can happen.

One on the only remaining predictable aspects is the offense’s top priority to keep the ball.

“That’s our No. 1 thing on our chart,” Jamison said of preventing turnovers. “We pride ourselves on keeping the ball in our hands. We just didn’t get it done last week.”